Hearts Divided (Cedar Cove #5.5)(59)

In moments, the toddler and her entourage were moving as one toward the farmhouse. Nick was halfway down the drive when he heard the male voice behind him.

“Wait, son! Please.”

No one had ever called him son. His own dad “split” the day his mom told him she was pregnant. Whenever Marianne’s boyfriends bothered to call him anything, they invariably came up with a cruel reminder of how small he was.

There’d also never been anyone who’d wanted to talk to him as much as the man who was jogging to catch him.

The man wasn’t alone. A woman jogged beside him.

The driveway was so steep that the man and woman towered over Nick more than they would have if they’d all been standing on level ground.

The couple crouched down, and it didn’t feel mean or insulting. They just wanted to look him straight in the eyes.

Their eyes, Nick noticed, glistened with tears.

“Who are you?” the man asked.

Nick hesitated. He could see this man showing up at Dennis’s house and being shouted at by Dennis. Hating the image, he replied with a shrug.

“Well, I’m Charles MacKenzie, and this is my wife, Clara. We’re Elizabeth’s grandma and grandpa, and we can’t tell you how grateful we are that you saved her. If she’d gone across the road…” The voice faltered.

“She was sitting down,” Nick said. “She wouldn’t have crossed the road. I don’t think she was running away. Was she?”

“Heavens, no!” Clara replied. “She was just fascinated by the lights on the trees. The minute I turned them on, she started pointing to them. She loves bright colors. I’ll bet she loved your bright blue eyes.”

Nick didn’t have bright blue eyes. At least, the last time he’d looked, they were gray. But if this nice lady wanted to think his eyes were bright blue, that was okay with him. He wished they were. For her.

“We didn’t imagine Elizabeth would go outside,” Charles murmured. “Or that she could get outside with all of us watching her. But she did, and you saved her. You must live nearby?”

Nick shrugged again. “I better go.”

“Why don’t you let us drive you home? It’s getting dark.”

“I’m okay.”

“Could you join us for dinner? We could call your parents and invite them, too. We’d like to tell them what you did.”

“No. I mean, they’re—” Not home. Nick was certain it was true, that Dennis and his mom had already left for work. If he told these kind people he’d be alone for the evening, they’d really want him to stay for dinner, and when Dennis sent one of his customers to check on him and he wasn’t there…“I have to go now.”

“All right,” Charles said. “We don’t want to keep you. But here’s something for you to remember. If you ever need anything—anything at all—you come to us. Just walk up this driveway, knock on the door and say ‘I’m the boy who rescued Elizabeth.’”

“You don’t even need to say that much,” Clara said. “We’ll see your blue eyes and know who you are. But if it seems that our eyes are failing us, if for some reason you think we might’ve forgotten, even though we never will, you can say ‘I’m Elizabeth’s hero.’” Clara didn’t ask if that was okay with Nick. Instead, she added, “I really wish you’d let me send you home with some Christmas cookies.”

“You should take her up on that, son. She’s a terrific cook. Do you like apple butter?”

“I’ve never tasted it.”

“Then it’s time you did. My Clara makes the best apple butter in the world. Could we get you to take a jar or two?”

He was so tempted, not by the offer of food, but by the kindness that came with it. “No. Thank you. I have to go.” Now. If he didn’t, he might not ever leave.

“All right. Thank you, Elizabeth’s hero. And please remember what we told you. We’re here if you need us.”

How could he ever forget? Nick wondered as he continued his journey home.

He ran, even though he knew his destination would be a locked house and a frigid porch. The sooner he put distance between himself and what he wanted so much—but would never have—the better.

He must have run faster than he’d ever run before. In no time he rounded the corner where Dennis’s house would come into view.

Dennis’s pickup was in the drive and a rental truck, like the U-Haul Dennis had rented to move Nick and Marianne from Medford to Sarah’s Orchard, was parked out front.

Dennis, his mom and two of Dennis’s friends were loading the vehicles. It wasn’t just his mom’s furniture that was being loaded, but Dennis’s, as well. And there were things Nick had never seen. Equipment from the basement, he supposed.

No one shouted at him for being late. His mom simply told him they were leaving the second the trucks were loaded—about five minutes from now. Any belongings he hadn’t put on the van by then would be left behind.

Would he have been left behind if he’d accepted Mrs. MacKenzie’s offer of apple butter and cookies?

The question would haunt Nick for years to come. How different his life might’ve been if he’d returned to the daffodil-yellow farmhouse in the middle of that very night.